UN planes damaged at airport

Two UN aircraft were affected by last Friday's explosions at Kinshasa's N'Djili airport, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Tuesday, citing a report from a UN team that assessed damage caused by the blasts. But he said repairs to the damaged aircraft - an Ilyushin and an Antonov - could be made on the ground. The government is investigating the cause of the
explosions, in which the provisional death toll has topped 100. The airport has reopened for limited civilian air traffic, with a Sabena flight from Belgium landing on Monday. Meanwhile, a MONUC spokesman in Kinshasa said on Wednesday that some five UN international military officers had been "escorted" from the airport area and briefly detained by government authorities immediately after Friday's explosion. "It was more
to get them away from the area, largely for their own protection," the spokesman told IRIN. "They were released without problem a few hours later," he said.